Prizes awarded at Osgoode Society Annual General meeting

The Osgoode Society Annual General Meeting was held yesterday at Osgoode Hall. A large number of members and guests were on hand to hear editor-in-chief Jim Phillips report on the society's operations, approve minutes and the financial report, to hear society president R.Roy McMurtry's fascinating remarks on his soon to be published memoirs (this year's Osgoode Society members' book), and to congratulate this year's prize winners.

Three awards were presented: the Peter Oliver Prize for best published student work in the previous year, the R. Roy McMurtry Fellowship for graduate students or junior scholars researching important subjects in legal history, and the Jack Saywell Prize for the best book on constitutional legal history published in the last two years.

The winners are as follows:

Peter Oliver prize (co-winners): Susan McKelvey, currently a J.D. student at Queen's University for an article based on work done as an undergraduate at York University, and David Steeves, a lawyer at Legge & Legge in Toronto, for an article based on work done as a graduate student at Dalhousie University Law School (as it then was known.)

There were also co-winners of the McMurtry Fellowship--Joseph Dunlop, currently a post-doc at Emmanuel College, University of Toronto, and Ed Cavanagh, a doctoral student at the University of Ottawa.

The Saywell Prize was awarded to Dr. Michael Cross, professor emeritus of history at Dalhousie University, for his biography of Robert Baldwin, "The Morning Star of Memory," published in 2012 by Oxford University Press.

Our congratulations to all winners!

Patrick dissertation on Blasphemy law in Canada and the Anglo world

Jeremy Patrick, now of the University of South Queensland, has posted his dissertation on SSRN.

Here's the abstract for "The Curious Persistence of Blasphemy: Canada and Beyond"

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the history and future of the crime of blasphemy. In the introduction, several key questions are examined: (1) What is blasphemy? (2) Why do people blaspheme? and (3) What are the real or perceived harms of blasphemy? Subsequently, Part I examines the history of blasphemy and blasphemy-like laws in six jurisdictions around the globe: England, Ireland, Australia, Pakistan, the United Nations, and the United States. The jurisdictions chosen illuminate the fact that blasphemy is a complex concept which can be regulated in a wide variety of ways. These six provide an excellent picture of the varied and diverse ways the concept of blasphemy has operated and an understanding as to why it remains relevant today. Part II of this dissertation turns away from a global, comparative examination of blasphemy and instead provides a comprehensive, in-depth study of a single jurisdiction: Canada. This sustained history of blasphemy in Canada, the first ever published, allows for a valuable snapshot of the evolution of the crime into its modern form. Part III synthesizes the research and analysis in Parts I and II to answer the fundamental questions: what is the future of the crime of blasphemy in Canada and beyond?

Stevenson on 1978 US Indian Child Welfare Act and Politicization of First Nations in Saskatchewan

An intriguingly transnational look at law, society and first nations activism: Allyson Stevenson in American Indian Quarterly Winter/Spring2013, Vol. 37 Issue 1/2, "Vibrations across a Continent: The 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act and the Politicization of First Nations Leaders in Saskatchewan."

Here's the abstract:

The article discusses the impact of the U.S. Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978 on the political, cultural, and legal discourses surrounding aboriginal children in Saskatchewan's child welfare system. Particular focus is given to debates over transracial adoption. According to the author, the ICWA provided First Nations leaders with a framework for their activism on child welfare jurisdiction. Details on the roles of gender and racial discrimination in child welfare policies and practices are presented. Other topics include the Canadian Indian Act of 1876, self-government movements among First Nations peoples, and the Saskatchewan activist group known as the Peyakowak Committee.

New Osgoode Society website!

Many readers have noticed (and commented!) that the Osgoode Society website has been stuck at last year for quite a while (i.e. since last year.)
We are pleased to announce that the new website is now operational! It's been a lot of work, by Jim and Marilyn and others, and would not have been possible without the help of a generous grant from the Law Foundation of Ontario.  Thanks also to the Bora Laskin Law Library of the University of Toronto, which provided a home for the site while it was under construction.
The url is the same: www.osgoodesociety.ca, but the site is no longer hosted by the Law Society of Upper Canada (who are also to be heartily thanked for their sponsorship of the old site and the society's operations in general.)
Having an independent site means that we can sell/renew memberships and books online and update more often. That doesn't mean this blog is going out of business--at some point it will be integrated with the new site, but for now we'll stay here. And there are a few other wrinkles, but it's an exciting initiative.
Check it out!

New from MQUP: Weaver on Suicide in NZ in 20th century

McGill-Queen's University Press has released its fall catalogue, which includes some great-looking books.

One of these is Sorrows of a Century: Interpreting Suicide in New Zealand, by McMaster University historian John Weaver, a interdisciplinary study using coroner's records.

The publisher says:

In Sorrows of a Century, John Weaver describes how personal relationships, work, poverty, war, illness, and legal troubles have driven thousands to despair. His study is set in twentieth-century New Zealand where - in spite of high standards of living and a commitment to social welfare - citizens have experienced the profound losses and stresses of the human condition.

Focusing on New Zealand because it has the most comprehensive and accessible coroners' records, Weaver analyzes a staggering amount of information to determine the social and cultural factors that contribute to suicide rates. He examines the country's investigations into sudden deaths, places them within the context of major events and societal changes, and turns to witnesses' statements, suicide notes, and medical records to remark on prevention strategies. His extensive survey of twelve thousand cases also provides an insightful assessment of psychiatry and psychology in the last century. 

In reviewing the motives and methods of suicide, Weaver points out the complications facing deterrence. Moving beyond the timeless present of the social sciences and the irrationality emphasized in psychology, Sorrows of a Century marshals testimony to highlight the historical context and rational conduct behind suicide.

New journal: Comparative Legal History

A new journal of interest to Canadian legal historians has been launched by Hart Publishing under the editorship of Sean Donlan, of the University of Limerick Faculty of Law. Sean is known to many of us through his visits to the Toronto Legal History Group and transatlantic conferences. Canada is represented on the international editorial board  by Philip Girard and Mary Jane Mossman.

Comparative Legal History is published both online and in print twice a year, appearing in the spring and the autumn.

The publishers describe the journal as 

an international and comparative review of law and history. Articles will explore both 'internal' legal history (doctrinal and disciplinary developments in the law) and 'external' legal history (legal ideas and institutions in wider contexts). Rooted in the complexity of the various Western legal traditions worldwide, the journal will also investigate other laws and customs from around the globe. Comparisons may be either temporal or geographical and both legal and other law-like normative traditions will be considered. Scholarship on comparative and trans-national historiography, including trans-disciplinary approaches, is particularly welcome.

Submissions are to be in English, with an optimal length for articles between 7500 to 15000 words, including footnotes. Shorter submissions will be considered for our 'Short Articles' section. All articles are submitted to double blind peer review. Book reviews will generally range from 1500 to 2500 words. Review articles will also be considered.

For information on articles contact Professor Heikki Pihlajamäki, Helsinki University
Email: Heikki.pihlajamaki@helsinki.fi

For reviews, Dr Agustin Parise, Maastricht University
Email: agustin.parise@maastrichtuniversity.nl
 

 
Comparative Legal History is the official journal of the European Society for Comparative Legal History.
 

Updated: New book by Ed Cavanagh on Land Rights and Colonialism in South Africa

Update: This book will be launched at The Space, 139 Bank Street, Ottawa, evening of Thursday 6 June. .


 Last year's Osgoode Society Peter Oliver Prize winner, Edward Cavanagh, Trillium Scholar at the University of Ottawa and co-founder of the e-journal Settler Colonial Studies, has just published Settler Colonialism and Land Rights in South Africa; Possession and Dispossession on the Orange River, available at Amazon and MacMillan. The book will be launched in Ottawa June 6th. Congratulations, Ed!

Here's the publishers' blurb:

Layers of dispossession and disruption are definitive of South African history. Bouncing from Griqua Philippolis (1824-1862) to Afrikaner Orania (1990-2013), this book shows how land rights are prioritised in pre-apartheid and post-apartheid contexts. The result is a new way of looking at the country's history - different to the version of history that guided transformation and inspired an idiosyncratic system of land restitution.